6 Reasons Authors Still Want Publishers

1.) Because, at least today, “in person” bookstores are still important, and traditional publishers have a much better chance of getting your book “in” those stores across the country. Especially as a fiction author, I think (again, at least for now) this is still a super important piece.

2.) All your reasons listed!

3.) While I “like” to learn knew things and be very hands on most of the time, my golden nuggets of time that I carve ot of my day are better served trying to write good fiction rather than trying to learn how to “be” my own publisher.

I totally respect those that take the self-published route though. It’s just not for me at this point. (Never say never, right?!?)

You did not mention the low rates of Financial return for an author when traditionally published, nor do you mention the fact that authors rarely get the opportunity to check the accuracy of the book sale reports against the real accounts of the publisher. Nor do authors get the opportunity to retain rights ESP in world zones where the publisher does not operate as an example. Knowing or suspecting your trade publisher is cheating u, with holding rights the author could use, being useless at marketing and authors can now hire book packagers to do the slick things on the page & cover are all reasons NOT to waste time seeking a publisher.
Getting published is v expensive EGO boost IMHO

I sought a traditional publisher for all the reasons you stated above. I didn’t feel “qualified” to go it alone. I do have writer friends who chose to self publish and I have the utmost respect for them. My publisher is a small indie publisher and I appear to be marketing my book through the same channels as my self published friends, but I think my publisher has been able to open a few more doors that would have otherwise been closed. I’m writing a sequel now and if my publisher doesn’t pick it up I might chose to go the self publish route.

All MY life!

I certainly do not fault anyone for choosing to self-publish. Heck, I might even find myself in the predicament of shelving my series or self-publishing at some point. But for me, this is my dream. Years back, I was in a bookstore and I realized (at random!) that I desperately want to walk into a store and to find my book on the shelf.

As for the point about mainstream media largely ignoring self-published titles, that is absolutely true. 50 Shades of Grey only got the kind of publicity it did because it had a built-in fan base of nearly 5,000 Twilight fans when it was published. And of course, the author did some amazing marketing. But even that route left her work tainted with the “fan fiction” label. The landscape may be changing, but it seems that authors who are contracted with a traditional publishing house are more highly regarded than those of small-time epublishing houses or those who are self-published.

All great reasons listed. The objective validation and emotional payoff are important to me.

I might self-publish someday, but if I do, it means I’ve given up my hope of being represented by an agent.

I haven’t tried hard enough yet to let go of the dream.

My feeling is never say never. After years of “good stuff, but no cigar” rejections from quality literary magazines, I found an indie epublisher for my women’s fiction short stories. Once upon a time I’d rather have died. Now the stories are available for (like) ever, and the validation is giving me the moxie to keep on writing my novel about a dysfunctional Quaker family.

A good state of mind is priceless.

Though all of the above are good ones, number five would be first with me. I love the idea of a group of people, using their particular expertise, completing a project. I love to develop a story and tell it in such a way that a reader can feel as though they were a part … But unless someone else, who is not inside my head, proofs it for me, I don’t know for sure if the reader will experience it in the way it was meant. And yes, I confess, my spelling and punctuation leaves something to be desired. I’d love someone with the eye for detail I do not have to help me with those. Marketing? I know I’ll have to do some, but a little help and guidance along the way would be greatly appreciated. I do not presume to be gifted in all these areas and hope to work with professionals who are. They can fill in my gaps and I can learn from them to build from weaknesses. There are many out there with experience in these things who don’t want to “tell the story.” I’ll do my part and hope to find others who will do theirs.

This post expresses what I’ve been thinking. I’m pursuing traditional publishing for a number of reasons. The validation, but also, should my story be selected some point down the road for publication, there will be others who will help it with the tweaks of editing that I have no experience with. Also, getting the book into places I’d never have access to.

Rachelle, this is an excellent list of valid reasons to seek the traditional route. As someone who is a “both-and” author, I don’t see any reason for someone not to try to scale the walls of the Forbidden City. It’s good discipline and makes you a stronger writer. All the while, if you’re productive, you can always opt for self-publishing later.

For the sake of fuller understanding I would like to add a couple of thoughts to your points. This is not to turn this into an “us v. them,” but simply to clarify the “them.”

1. Objective validation To be “chosen” by a publisher means that a group of people who are widely read, and who see dozens of new projects come across their desks every single week, believe your book has value and will find a reading audience.

True, although they reject many more projects than they accept, and those rejected books may also have value. The real “objective” measure is readership. A book that readers read and pay for and talk about is the ultimate validation.

2. Editing and design.

True, this is what traditional publishing does very well . . . most of the time. But with cutbacks in staffing editorial work might not be as hands-on as before. New and even veteran writers sometimes get handed off to young editors, who can make matters worse (this has happened to me on a few occasions, and I had to work hard to undo the damage). I’ve also had author friends endure terrible covers they have no power to stop.

My own traditional covers, I’m happy to say, have been stellar. I think this is the norm. Cover design is something the trad houses do very, very well.

Yet quality editing and design services are abundant now for a fee. Self-published authors can produce traditional-quality work now (and should).

3. Expanding your readership.

The amount and scope of marketing publishers do is usually tied to track record. That’s good business sense. So don’t expect, as a new writer, to be given gold star treatment. And in the digital age, it’s often the case that the writer can do just as much, and maybe more, than a traditional publisher in finding new readers.

4. Mainstream media

For a small number of non-fiction titles, there’s a shot. For fiction, fuggedaboutit. In non-fiction, publishers want to see that platform. For a writer of non-fiction without a platform, blogging and self-publishing may actually be the better, or the only, option.

5. Partnership and expertise. Sometimes it’s nice to know you’ve got a partner who knows what they’re doing.

True, this is what a good publishing company will do for you. A self-publisher needs to create his or her own “team.” This can be done, but it takes work. (I hope no one thinks you don’t have to work, inside or outside the walls of the Forbidden City).

6. Emotional payoff. There is just something special about the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

True, when it first happens. Just be aware that traditional publishing cares about your dreams only so long as they are profitable for them. This is not a criticism; it’s a simple truth, because publishing is a business.

I have other author friends, multi-published, who have been dropped and can’t get another contract from a traditional house. This is when you wake up from the dream in a cold sweat. For many such authors, self-publishing is a lifesaver, an option they never had before.

So make all these decisions and look at the long term with a mix of both hope and hard headed realism. Nurture your dreams but major in realism.

I am chasing traditional-publishing for the reason that when my novel is acquired, purchased, edited and then sold, that I will have the *very* best product I can possibly have when all is said and done. If I self publish…I can’t guarantee that because I still don’t and never will know everything there is to know about publishing, marketing and editing. I’m not for/against either one, this is just the best option for me personally with my personality and needs at this time.

I am seeking representation and/or traditional publishing for all the reasons you stated. As one who just recently began seriously trying to publish children’s picture books, I can see how easy it is to become discouraged. When you have done all the right things, get good critiques, follow submission directions to the letter, write the best story you know how and then some, revise revise revise and still are not published, and this goes one for years and years, self-publishing must start looking pretty good. I still think having a “team” behind you to guide and support you must be a better feeling. Nothing to do but put a smile on your face and a song in your heart and keep trying.

I’m pursuing traditional publishing because my work is marketable [yes, I do honestly believe this], and I don’t have the resources to put together my own editorial and marketing teams. I don’t think there’s an actual great divide between independent people and collaborative types. All artists must be somewhat independent to create their masterpieces, but, unless they’re jacks of all trades, they have to be collaborative, too. This is the reality for trad- or self-publishing.

I would expand on #1. It’s my main reason, as most of the others are in flux and may well change to favor self-publishing in the future.

But not only do I appreciate objective validation from a personal fulfillment point of view, I also know, as an editor, that it’s impossible to fairly judge your own writing–even when you’re a great editor for others. And I am loathe to put something out there that is less than my best work or even, perhaps, embarrassingly sub-par.

But just because a self-pubber pays an editor doesn’t mean the work she puts out is good work. The best editor in the world can’t turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse and even if one freelance editor tells you straight-up that your work isn’t good enough, trust me, you will be able to find one to edit it as best she can, wash her hands of it and let you do as you wish with it.

Traditional publishers aren’t going to do that, because it’s their work too. And while a freelance editor (like me) makes more money simply from more work, a traditional publisher’s editor makes more money from higher-quality work–and suffers at least in reputation from association with low quality work.

All of the above apply for me, including the idea of having a support team. I’m good at writing. It has always been one of my strongest skills. I’m a darned decent editor, too. I even have some marketing background, so the idea of promoting my own books does not terrify me. That said, I do know my limitations.

For one thing, an agent has contacts that I would have to struggle for years to develop. I’m not a spring chicken. I don’t have time to devote to that.

I’m also not an artist. I need help with book design and cover art. I imagine I could learn enough to come up with something acceptable or hire somebody to do that. However, I don’t feel like U have time to deal with it or filter through the options and come up with something really good.

I want an agent and I would prefer to go the traditional publishing route because I know what my strengths and weaknesses are. I need a partner who is knowledgeable and can manage the things I’m NOT good at, so I can concentrate on the writing.

I’m not ruling out self-publishing, but I see it as sort of a last resort. I want my books to be the best I can possibly make them and I’m afraid that if I try to do the whole thing myself, they’ll turn out sub-standard.

7. If you don’t have an editor, you have to buy your own drinks at conferences.

Traditional publishers are able to offer suggested changes/edits that reflect their current knowledge of readers interests and project marketability, not to mention their expansive resources to get the books out there. Great conversation you’ve generated here today!

For me, it all comes down to who I am and my calling. My calling is to write. I market my work, but I’m not interested in managing the entire publishing process or a marketing campaign on my own. Unless you have $2,000-3,000 to really publish a book right on your own, I personally find self-publishing draining and destructive to my person calling to write and to market where I can.

Thanks for starting this great discussion, Rachelle.

If I end up with a story I believe people will benefit from, but no one wants to take a chance on it, I might self-publish, buy a red wagon, and go up and down the streets giving books away.

There’s one simple reason I want a traditional publisher: I can’t evaluate my own work. If it’s not good, I certainly don’t want to self-pub it and have the world see my 80K word drivel. I don’t want to look back on it someday and have to admit, red-faced, that I wrote it.

I’m published with Simon and Schuster. I highly value the editorial/marketing/sales etc support that I receive. While ebooks are growing, print is still the majority of sales. Getting into bookstores as a self published author is extremely difficult. As ebooks grow I expect to see traditional publishers taking a larger marketing focus.

S&S provides weekly sales reports to their authors so I can see how many books I’ve sold (ebook or print) and also who sold them (indie bookstore versus chain versus places like Costco etc) They also have a great service to tackle piracy (a huge prob with ebooks). I send them the link and they send over the take down letter and follow up etc. All these things free me to focus on my primary job- writing.

But as others have pointed out it doesn’t have to be either or- I’ve also self pubbed. That’s the beauty of this brave new world- we have choices.

I can’t stress enough not to self pub just because you think it takes too long to be trad published. Often (not always) the first book we write (or second, third in my case) aren’t ready for publication. We don’t expect that once someone does their first painting that they should have it hang in the Met, if they learn the piano that they should get a record deal- why would it be different with writing? It takes time to learn to write. My first published book is my fourth completed manuscript. I’d rather not think about how many half started books there were or how many times I re-wrote those first books.

Learning a craft takes time and none of that time is wasted.

Would the dialogue be different if the newbie authors (like me) don’t write for a living, but rather have one book, a memoir (in my case) to share with the world?
I have spent one year editing. The manuscript was edited chapter by chapter by editing groups, read to writing groups and most recently I paid for the services of a professional editor.
I would LOVE the validation of an agent and publisher and all they have to offer.
Is the wait time worth it?

For me, I’m pursuing traditional publishing (but I’m open to small presses), for two main reasons:

1. The onus is not entirely on me for selling. I have to do marketing, but I can do it in a way that’s comfortable for me.

2. I would get easily overwhelmed if trying to self-publish and stop the process before it got off the ground. All the different formatting requirements for all the different outlets, things which operate on an assumption of knowledge which is above my head. Yes, I could learn, but if I’d put that pressure on myself to self-publish, and it was do-or-die on the formatting, I think I’d be more likely to curl up in the corner and wave the white flag in self-publishing’s face.

I need support and the collection of minds greater than my own.

I fear this is true, Rachelle–and for most small-press publishing as well. My novel The Rescuer’s Path came out this January, with glowing cover comments from Ursula Le Guin (“exciting, physically vivid, and romantic”), Cheryl Strayed (“held me from the first page to the end”), and many other noted authors whose opinions, one would think, would count with the media; yet, except a notice in Small Press Review (“lyrical and poetic, the characters vividly drawn, the story captivating”) and elsewhere, and mostly 5-star Amazon reviews, media critics and bookstores will not so much as open the book. Indeed, our not-so-independent-as-all-that bookstores here in the Portland area apparently don’t even bother to read the cover blurbs (since these stores feature and proclaim the very authors cited, yet will neither schedule a reading from this novel, nor accept except–after much pleading–a very few copies on consignment. I’m a former museum publicist who could get museum exhibitions review in all the media in the Bay Area and many across the nation, as well as p.r. for that museum’s published books–and a former journalist with good press rapport–yet the book is still blanked by the media. If any had opened the book, read a paragraph, and decided NO, then okay it’s their expertise—but they don’t do even that much. So obviously a small-press-published book hasn’t a chance in our society, let alone self-published books.

All of what you said and then some. It is validation when a traditional publishing company decides to publish your work. Anyone can self publish, but to know that someone else really wants to put money behind your work because they believe in you. That’s something. Plus, you know you’re getting help to make the book the best it can be. You’re getting help from the industry.

Well said!

It is validating and reassuring to have a publisher take an interest in my manuscript. I know that he/she will ensure that my book is presented in a professional manner.

Your number one reason of external validation has to be the biggest reason that most writers would like to be ‘tradtiionally published’ that and the being able to get books into the places that a self published work is never found – normally the bookstore. However, I find that once an author starts selling books and getting reviews that the first reason starts to fade away because the validation then comes from the audience of readers which is far more valuable in the long run.

I have self-published, made a profit and had lots of fun doing it. Will I do it again someday? Probably, but my current novel is in the hands of a very capable NY literary agent seeking a traditional publisher. Why?

Let’s be honest. Traditional publishers open doors, and not just any doors, important doors. One call from a well-known publisher can secure a review from a critic who has a following of 100,000 active readers. Another call from that prestigious publishing exec can get an author interview on a talk or radio show. Sure, it’s up to the author to secure as much of that marketing hoopla as possible, but there is ONE simple truth about all successful novels. Word of mouth made the success possible.

Have you ever heard the sales term Centers of Influence? Countless potential readers surround us. Only a few, however, have the ability to influence the buying decisions of many others. Those influential people create the buzz that drives viral sales. Publication by mainstream publishing houses means that your work as an author has professional validation. A Center of Influence can refer others to your work with confidence that it will reflect back positively on him or her and will produce many future fans.

Ultimately, traditional publication makes it easier to recruit those critically important Centers of Influence…hence, my current decision to stop playing around in the self-pub market and go for the big time.

I don’t need validation. I was something of an internet phenomenon in 2000 when my poetry was shared 300 million times. Even now, I have thousands of fan letters on an old laptop. That and the seven digit contract I received from a company out of Hawaii was enough validation for a lifetime.

But the internet is subject to rapid change and interest in my poetry waned when the online masses shifted to Facebook.

I returned to an old dream of novel writing, and hauled out my first romance novel. Avon had picked it off the slush pile in 99 and rejected it, but the editor thought enough of my potential to pen a handwritten letter with suggestions.

I’ve spent the last year rewriting it (and working on two other books in the series), which brought me to the perplexing and painful question of how to publish it. It would be nice to have professional input, but I don’t want to go through the lengthy process of approaching an agent, waiting, waiting, and more waiting. I’ve waited long enough. So I’ve decided to go the Ebook route.

Within the next two weeks, my novel will go live.

I don’t know how it will do–whether it will float on the wings of my earlier success or never get off the ground, but I’m willing to take the chance as I believe in this novel. And I know from experience that epublishing holds potential. But I also know that success on the net has a lot to do with being at the right place at the right time.

Rachelle,

Your blog is one of the few I have found to be in tune with the current issues for writers. Please feel free to suggest others.

As a writer open to both forms of publishing, I have several friends who have gone the ‘self pub’ route mainly out of frustration with the hurdles of traditional publishing.

I always thought my main reason for seeking traditional publishing was in line with your #1 and to see my books in bookstore windows. This is now a dated notion, since so many people read books electronically.

I have the heart of an entrepreneur so the idea of doing the work is not a deterrent either. I thought I might give tradition a first shot but if it does not work out, it is great to know I have other options for sharing my work.

I am on the verge of sending out my first querry letters for my first novel.

While there are pros and cons to every brand of publishing, I think the reasons posted here for traditional publishing are still true a year later.

The mine of subpar $.99 novels goes nearly to the center of the earth. I look to publishers to sort through the granite and find me the diamonds.

My book–by the way–is a gem, but I will still look to the experts to tell me just how much more polishing it needs before it can really shine in the sun.